BAGHDAD: Seven Iraqi soldiers were killed in clashes with gunmen yesterday, police and hospital sources said, as fears mount that Iraq might slide back into bloody sectarian strife.
Ten years after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Sunni, Shia and ethnic Kurdish factions have yet to find a stable power-sharing deal and security is deteriorating.
More than 300 people have been killed in violence over the past week. More than 700 died in April, according to the UN, the highest monthly toll in almost five years. Unidentified gunmen fired on an army checkpoint in Taji, 20km north of the capital Baghdad overnight, killing four soldiers, police and hospital sources said.
In the western province of Anbar, three soldiers were killed during a two-hour gunbattle with men who attacked a checkpoint controlled by government-backed Sunni fighters in Garma, 9km east of the city of Falluja, police said. Reuters
